Obama unveils revamped college comparative tool

<p>President Barack Obama's College Scorecard replaces the ranking system he originally wanted to do. The site can help incoming students choose a college. <em>PHOTO COURTESY OF COLLEGESCORECARD.ED.GOV</em></p>

President Barack Obama's College Scorecard replaces the ranking system he originally wanted to do. The site can help incoming students choose a college. PHOTO COURTESY OF COLLEGESCORECARD.ED.GOV


President Barack Obama has unveiled an online scorecard to help prospective college students compare universities based on information like average student loan debt, potential earning power and costs to students.

The revamped College Scorecard replaces the president’s planned university rating system. Instead, the tool allows users to rate universities on several different metrics based on what aspects are most important to them.

“Everyone should be able to find clear, reliable, open data on college affordability and value—like whether they’re likely to graduate, find good jobs, and pay off their loans,” Obama said in his weekly radio address on whitehouse.gov. “Right now, however, many existing college rankings reward schools for spending more money and rejecting more students—at a time when America needs our colleges to focus on affordability and supporting all students who enroll.”

The improved website offers updated data on all higher education institutions including, for the first time, a comprehensive list of former student’s earnings, average debt and repayment rates.

The president originally planned to create a comprehensive enumerated rating system that would judge schools based on affordability and after-graduation earnings but the plan was widely panned by Higher Education leaders as being arbitrary or unfair, according to the Associated Press.

The plan, which was to be used to give out billions of federal dollars on financial aid, was ultimately scrapped.

Ball State is close to average in annual cost compared to the rest of the nation but is well above average in students who pay off their debt after graduation with a typical monthly payment of $278 according to College Scorecard. The university is also well above average in graduation rate and retention.

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